African Serval Cat Shot Dead in Detroit (PHOTO, VIDEO)

An African serval cat has been shot and killed after sparking alerts among residents in the local community in Detroit's east side over the past week.

(Photo: YouTube Screen Shot)

An African serval cat has been shot and killed in Detroit.

A widespread search for the serval cat had taken place for almost a week, with a rescue team exhausting its resources in an attempt to find the exotic cat.

The search had come after numerous sightings by residents were reported in the area to authorities and the Michigan Humane Society. However, despite the alerts, the police and the MHS were unable to send resources to conduct a proper search for the wild cat.

The savannah cat is in fact a cross between an African servel cat and a domestic cat. It was reportedly three years old and weighed about 25 pounds.

However, the search for the cat ended on Monday night after Laura Wilhelm-Bruzek, from the Paws for the Cause feral cat rescue in Chesterfield, said the dead cat was found in a trashcan.

The cat had apparently been shot dead by a local resident, and Wilhelm-Bruzek expressed his anger that the cat had been killed: "I think people can't just go around shooting things they don't understand. I think we need to be a little bit more respectful of the animals and human beings around us.

"I'd love to see someone look into it and investigate it. But I'm not holding out a lot of hope. This whole thing from the beginning has just been a mess."

The cat's owners themselves had contacted Paws for a Cause last week to report that their cat had escaped through a window in their house about a month ago.

However, their search for the cat ended in anger and disappointment after Wilhelm-Bruzek was informed that the cat had been found in a garbage can: "I simply asked them for the cat's body and they said it was across the street in a garbage can, and he walked me over to the garbage can, and the cat was there."

The owners of the cat are reportedly devastated by the killing of their pet, which they had raised since it was four months old.